I got to hear the Dead several times in 1969, including Feb. at the Rose Palace in Pasadena. as well as later in the year at the (new) Fillmore and Winterland. I also saw IB at the Shrine in L.A in 1969. The opener for that show was Albert King.... I first heard both the Dead and IB in 1968. By 1969 IB was not very interesting to me, even with a natural gas pipe at the front of the stage shooting flames eight feet high. The Dead, on the other hand, educated, inspired, and just plain filled me with joy for the next 27 years in their original form. There's no point whatever in comparing the two bands, as has been aptly pointed here in places. Categories and analyses are academic; I'm only in it for the joy. That said, this is a hot show.

Not much concern about Iron Butterfly really an Apples and Oranges type comparison.
It sounds like this was an undersold show with the band calling for folks to gather upfront.
I do believe the Kiel was a larger sized venue.
Somebody from IB organization probably thought both bands names together would look good out on the marque.
My personal take is when the DEAD hit the DARK STAR 2nd song into a set and they are firing on all cylinders then I am not sure anyone could play after the Dead.
Not a long Dark Star on the recording
(possibly a cut?) but very psychedelic.
There are points in the ELEVEN that are scorching hot. The LOVELIGHT is very high energy. Some nights Pigpen has to coax it out of the band but everyone seems primed this night.
"Get your hands out of your pocket,
My Mother told me that would make you crazy"
Love the final crescendo for LOVELIGHT!
IRON BUTTERFLY WILL BE ON IN A MINUTE...
and then someone tells Garcia probably the coolest thing you could tell Garcia when he was in your establishment, so Jerry tells the crowd-
"We have some more time, we are going to play a little more"-JERRY GARCIA
Yes, if the Butterfly was on the fence about playing then the rawness of the Other One probably convinced them that their heated tour bus was the only bus they were looking to get on this night.

In the winter of '69 the Grateful Dead's performances really do the trick.

Some great shows in this season, and this one and the night before are maybe the craziest.

With the exception of the Dew opener, this is just absolutely dripping with goo from start to finish. Dark Star, The Other One>Cryptical, Eleven>Lovelight all too good to be true! There is nothing like February 1969!!

Just for experimental purposes, I tried looking at some IB concerts on You Tube last night. The music? Zero. The lyrics? Less than zero. The drum solo? A joke. I'm sure Keith Moon did not feel threatened!

You frequently hear these bands talked about together: Beatles, Stones, Dead, Airplane, Hendrix, Cream, Who, Zeppelin, CSN&Y. I've never heard IB mentioned in the same breath. They're not in the same league.

Sorry but Iron Butterfly aren't half the musicians the Dead were. Speaking only about rhythm IB only wrote songs in 4/4 or common time, the Dead wrote songs in much more adventurous time signatures such as ten and ELEVEN, hence the songs title. Jesus get a frigging clue. The Dead were creative improvising musicians, IB were pop guys who played their songs the same way in the same order every night. Yeah they were tight, who wouldn't be if you played the same set every night? They were also, with the exception of their one hit, an average heavy 60's group and very dated. To call them master musicians is quite a stretch and to imply they knew more about music than Jerry and company is laughable at best and at worst ignorant.
Oh yeah, this show smokes.

And believe me....
Iron Butterfly was put to shame that night.

I don't know HOW many IB fans became deadheads that night (whether they knew it or not) :)

And to prove the point, how many Iron Butterfly TRIBUTE bands do YOU know of?

It was the second time I saw them and sure as hell not the last!

THANK you for having this for my memory.

weeeellll, my pops has been to an IB show and noyz sounds about right, they were pretty good but nothin special really. I can totally understand your reasoning, sure, they were a band that did not allow taping. Buuut, not many ever made the effort anyway. I doubt the dead immediately allowed taping to go on in the very beginning too.
3.5 quality
4.8 playing

nice show.

Alright why is it always the Dead are the best,they blew this band away and that band away blah blah blah?

Faulty logic = why do you think there are thousands of Dead boots and no IB boots?...........Gheez I dont know maybe because the Dead were the only ones that allowed it and had a group of very dedicated people who did tape the shows illegally when it wasn't allowed. Huh? Gee oh yeah. Ummmm almost every band out there does not allow for taping live shows nor do they allow it to show up on a archive like this. And that my friends is why IB shows are not up here and circulating around, it is not because they sucked anr the Dead rule the music world.

The Dead are great band don't get me wrong but this constant "they are the best" w/o proof or blind ranting how they are the greatest thing thats ever picked up guitars by Heads frustrates me.

And yes they did have a hard time keeping their instruments in tune back then. That happens after playing hours w/o stopping for a break.

Give this thinking a rest and just enjoy whats out there because there is ton of great music out there that doesnt have Jerry Garcia attached to it.

That being said that is one super smoking Other One.

First off, amazing show. Second, its hard to call IB amazing since people who went to their shows just wanted to hear inagaddadavida. I'd know, I have ONE boot of theirs from '71 and the crowd screams for it after nearly every song (they finally do it as an encore). Do you see thousands of dead shows/boots available or IB's? There is a reason for that.

Who the hell is this guy below?

What a dumbass

4.5 stars for the show. 4.5 stars for the sound adjusted for the period. I'm correcting for the Iron Butterfly guy.

Sorry folks but I'm gonna have to disagree with ya on one point. From a musical standpoint, Iron Butterfly is a much tighter, more educated group of players with brilliant songwriting skills throughout a three album period.(minus the tune 'In a Gadda Da Vida' which is probably the simplest and most cliche of their tunes) Just listen to an album entiteld "Ball" and the rest of "In a Gadda da Vida" and judge accordingly. They are actually a quite phenomenal and unique group and I advise you to at least check out their other stuff out before you discredit them entirely.

I love the Dead also, I just wish they would spend more time tuning their guitars!

They are playing for their lives on this and I can see how Iron Butterly felt upstaged - They crush anything after that. Remember at the time, IB had inna gadda da vida which was huge and GD just came out and rolled em. Billy is nuts on the drums and Pig blows the door off Lovelight.

Sound is slacking but musically this is really hot. They come out with this over the top Other One which to me deserves 5 stars for the attitude alone - So funny they were this cocky in St. Louis and then crapped out at Woodstock 6 months later. How different would history have been if they played this set there... Moral of the story: guys dont eat the brown acid.

...and the set was supposed to end with Lovelight. But (and I have this information from a person who was backstage at the show), after listening to the Dead burn the house down, Iron Butterfly didn't want to come out. So, the Dead came back on to play a "few more minutes" and proceeded to add insult to IB's injury with the Cryptical sandwich, Feedback, and AWBYG.

I only saw IB once, at a little place here in Belleville called The Palace. The opening act for them that night was a band called the Hour Glass, which happened to have a couple of brothers named Allman playing in it.

Being a no-talent, one-hit wonder does have its perils, one of which seems to be finding opening acts worse than you.

This show gets five brass balls for the Dead totally upstaging Iron Butterfly.

Nobody has reviewed this yet!I find that hard to believe.Sound quality except for the first 5 sec of dew,is wonderful.Nice Eleven.Come on people...start downloading!